


Sister

by rannadylin



Series: Watcher Violet [5]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Newborn Children, Sibling Love, orlans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 14:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14916734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rannadylin/pseuds/rannadylin
Summary: Violet Itzli was the third child of four and the rest of them were all boys. Then her sister was born.Twenty years later she'll be the Watcher of Caed Nua with a dozen siblings back in Ixamitl, but Audie will always be her best friend.





	Sister

The house was beginning to feel nice and full, with the birth of the Itzlis’ fifth child, but it certainly didn’t take long for the nursery to clear out after the older children met her. Izél’s three sons, at least, seemed very underwhelmed by the arrival of a second sister. 

Four-year-old Corbus had made faces at the baby. When she only cried and squirmed, Corbus lost interest and ran away to play before Izél could explain that it would be some weeks before the baby girl could focus on his efforts enough to react with the laughter he wanted.

Nico, nearing his second birthday, was practically as squirmy as the baby herself. First he crawled up into the rocking chair where Izél sat holding the infant. Then he tried poking at the baby’s nose, her stomach, her nubs of ears, her flailing fists. When he went for the eyes, Izél uttered a sharp rebuke and sheltered the poor hapless newborn under her blanket until Chimalli could reach for Nico and hoist him up to his shoulders, out of harm’s way. Their youngest boy sat there for half a minute, sucking his fingers, until he got to squirming again and Chimalli set him down just outside the nursery door to toddle away in search of Corbus.

Their firstborn, Garivald, bore his seven years with greater dignity. He scowled in scorn at his rambunctious little brothers, until his parents started in on the same admonitions he had received when each of them was born. With solemn nods he assured them that, yes, he would watch out for this new little sister as he did for all his siblings, and yes, he would set a good example for her as the eldest of the family, and yes, he would go keep his brothers busy now and make sure they didn’t disturb the baby’s nap. With this, Garivald departed, looking, despite his impeccable responsibility, no less relieved than the younger boys to keep his distance from this strange and demanding new bundle of fur.

Izél’s first daughter, quiet and, her proud mama would say, wise beyond her three years, watched the boys go, each in turn, and went back to studying the infant in her mother’s arms. She leaned in close, against the arm of the rocking chair, her expression as puzzled as when her parents, reading to her, touched on some dilemma or paradox of the world that made their little girl furrow her brow and purse her lips, just as she was doing now, and turn violet eyes up to them with a quiet “Why?”

Anticipating just such a question now, Izél shifted baby Audrisa to make room on her lap and patted her knee. “Come on up, Violet,” she invited. “Do you want to see your sister?”

Violet blinked up at her mother and then scrambled up into her lap. Izél stroked her hair, already twisting its way out of the neat pigtails in which Chimalli had secured her curls that morning. Violet snuggled in, leaning against her mother’s chest with a hand just barely stretched out toward the bundle of baby sister.

“You can touch her, darling,” Izél encouraged. “She won’t bite you.”

“Hasn’t yet the teeth for it, anyway,” Chimalli grinned. “Powerful gums, though.” Violet looked up at her father, eyes wide.

“Don’t scare her,” Izél admonished. “We’re having a moment here.”

Chimalli beamed at them. “A study in loveliness. You’re all right here, the three of you, if I go check on the boys? It would be a pity to have the ancestral house burnt down around us before we’ve quite finished filling it with offspring, love.”

“Go on, then,” Izél laughed. “We will manage quite well.”

When the nursery door had quietly closed behind him, Violet turned again to inspecting the newborn. Now she dared to reach out for the baby, one tentative finger hovering a moment before she settled on stroking her sister’s cheek. Audie stirred, eyes open only slits, turning her head with a whimper toward the sensation, with all the impatience of a newborn in pursuit of her next meal. Violet made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a giggle and pulled back.

Izél hugged both her daughters close. “I think your sister likes you,” she murmured into Violet’s hair. “What do you think of her?”

Violet considered this for a while, working up her courage to reach for the baby again, this time going for Audie’s tiny hands. Gently she wrapped her fingers around the infant’s fists, cooing back to her in some remnant of her own baby talk when Audie started whimpering. 

Apparently she had said the right thing. The baby’s head wobbled to an angle where she seemed to be seeking out the source of the words, sleepy eyes pointed in Violet’s direction. On Izél’s lap, the elder girl quivered with excitement at the baby’s attention.

Working her finger into the baby’s tight grasp, Violet at last reached a conclusion. “She listens better than Nico.”

“Wouldn’t take much,” Izél chuckled. 

“I thought,” Violet confessed, “it would be another brother.” She sounded perplexed.

“Now, darling,” her mother said. “I think I proved -- even to the likes of Tezca Coatl -- that I _am_ capable of bringing forth daughters, when I had _you_. Thought we might try it again. Are you disappointed? Were you hoping for a brother?”

Violet gave her mother that _Why?_ look and then shook her head. “I have three.” Her tone of voice made it almost an accusation.

“So you’re saying we should aim for a girl again the next time?” Izél laughed merrily. “Oh, my sweet. It doesn’t quite work that way. But you have one sister now, at least. We’re catching up to the menfolk in this house.”

Violet nodded, smiling at her sister. “She’s very small.”

“She’ll catch up, too,” Izél murmured. “But it’s very convenient that she’s so little now. You can hold her, if you like. Which, in a few years,” she added with a wry grin, “would surely incite squabbles of epic proportions. Better do it now while she’s toothless.”

Immediately Violet sat up straighter, nodding in earnest. She had some idea of the squabbles her mother alluded to, Izél thought: barely a year ago she’d constantly been trying to hold her baby brother Nico, who absolutely would not sit still for it, not once he had the slightest ability to crawl away and get into mischief. For Violet, on the other hand, sitting still was a natural state of being, as she demonstrated now while Izél carefully transferred the bundled baby to her sister’s tense arms. “There, now,” she said, “hold her head up. Crook your elbow -- there, you’ve got her. That’s right. You hold Audie and I shall hold you, my dumpling. Your father was right,” she added, with a kiss to Violet’s curly hair as she wrapped her arms around them both, “we are indeed a study in loveliness.”

They managed a few quiet minutes of rocking before Audie’s head tilted toward them with a petulant cry of protest. Violet quivered again, and Izél stroked her arms to encourage her to relax and not squeeze the baby too tightly. “Mama,” Violet whispered, “I think she’s hungry.”

“Oh, I know she is,” Izél said. “I suppose it’s high time this tiny tyrant’s demands were met.” Gently she disentangled the baby from her sister’s grasp. “Why don’t you go see what the boys are up to? I fear they may have your father hostage, by now.”

Violet nodded in all seriousness as she slipped down from Izél’s lap and padded over to the door. She stopped and looked back for a moment to ask, “Can I hold her again? Later?”

“Of course, darling,” Izél said. 

Violet smiled. “I think I’m gonna like having a sister, Mama.”


End file.
